Although the Gender Equality Education Act (性別平等教育法) was implemented 10 years ago, gender rights advocacy groups yesterday said they were disappointed at the government’s enforcement of the law, as there has been no progress in gender equality education.
With advocates wearing masks depicting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) — each bearing the titles “king of empty slogans,” “king of intransparency” and “king of incapability” respectively — rights advocacy groups during a press conference in Taipei accused the government of not making any progress in promoting gender equality education in schools.
“If we compare the current situation in gender equality education at schools with five years ago, we can see that, instead of making progress, things are moving backward,” Taiwan Gender Equality Education Association president Wang Li-ching (王儷靜) said. “For one thing, proper materials for education are still scarce, not every school at every level of education has such materials.”
“More shockingly, the Ministry of Education hires people who are against same-sex marriage or homosexuality as members of its Gender Equity Education Committee,” Wang added.
Association secretary-general Lin Yi-chia (林以加) also voiced her worries that conservative groups with religious backgrounds are influencing the realm of education.
She said that in 2011, on the eve of releasing a set of gender education materials written by several gender rights advocacy groups and approved by the ministry, “the ministry halted the plan, and released the materials only after revision due to pressure by religious groups.”
Cheng Chih-wei (鄭智偉), director of social works at the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, said that despite having gender equality education in the nation’s curriculum, in practice the subject is often not taught.
“The problem is that elementary-school teachers may tell students that they will skip the lessons and leave it to junior-high school, then junior-high school teachers skip it saying that it will be taught at high school,” Cheng said. “So the lessons are repeatedly postponed, and in the end, students never get to learn the lessons though it may be in the curriculum or in the textbooks.”
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